Biography
The son of a garage mechanic, Glenn Corbett was sent to live with his grandparents at the age of two. He later joined the Seabees and it was during his Navy years that he met his future wife, Judy, a speech major at Occidental College. With Judy's encouragement, Corbett began trying out for campus theatricals. His performance in Occidental's staging of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial led to his being signed by Columbia Pictures. After two year's worth of nondescript roles in films like
The Mountain Road (1960) and
Homicidal (1961), he landed the lead in the picturesque 1962 TV series It's a Man's World. Though the series lasted only 13 weeks, it gained enough of a cult following to assure Corbett's future stardom. In early 1963, he made a guest appearance as troublesome ex-G.I. Linc Case on the long-running series
Route 66; by the fall of that year, he was appearing in that series on a weekly basis, as a replacement for defecting
Route 66 star
George Maharis. After the series ran its course in 1964, Corbett went on to co-star as Chance Reynolds in the prime-time Western The Road West, which lasted a single season (1966-1967). He kept busy in theatrical features, appearing with
John Wayne in
Chisum (1969) and
Big Jake (1971), and starring in director Sam Fuller's West German-produced
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972). He went on to play Paul Morgan during the 1983-1984 season of
Dallas, returning to the role in 1988. In his last years, he occasionally worked as a dialogue director. Glenn Corbett died of lung cancer in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide